Strategy and Innovation in the Omdia Universe on CCM
By Scott Draeger, SVP of Product Marketing and Vertical Solutions
The newly released 2024 Omdia Universe for Customer Communications Management (CCM) offers the CCM market a new perspective. This is Omdia’s first full Universe report on key vendors in the CCM market. The Omdia Universe is unique as it examines Challenger and Leader vendors across a wide variety of important criteria, including:
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Core Capabilities
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Advanced Capabilities
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Solution Breadth
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Strategy & Innovation
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Market Momentum
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Vendor Execution.
Smart Communications is proud to be named a Leader in this new report.
Old CCM Technology Won’t be Back in Style
The 2024 Universe conveys a sense of urgency for organizations that have limited communication capabilities due to legacy constrained technologies. The report states, “…there may be enterprises that have legacy CCM solutions that would be well-advised to examine the feasibility of migrating to a modern CCM, which would provide a modern platform for sending personalized marketing material as well as bills and statements.” The time is now to consider new technology.
Look for a Vendor that Prioritizes Migration
This Universe report identifies a key threat to improving customer communications, “Another threat is legacy products and in-house created solutions that may be difficult to replace due to a high level of dependent code. Vendors need to provide a high level of professional services to help these enterprises migrate from these legacy products.”
Smart Communications has addressed this industry challenge with Migration Studio, SmartSTART implementation programs, and migration acceleration technologies for a variety of legacy CCM offerings. Additionally, Smart Communications routinely structures transactions that allow migration and implementation costs to be spread out over multiple years, allowing your returns to match your investments.
Smart Communications’ Vendor Summary: Capabilities and Features
When evaluating CCM technologies, there are market requirements to consider. The Universe identified several, including template creation, content creation, multi-channel batch production, workflow, and cloud capabilities. These capabilities appear in each vendor’s “Omdia Universe Vendor Summary.” In the Advanced Capabilities dimension, features like Ad hoc Communications, Analytics, Security, Compliance, and Governance are evaluated. Smart Communications is proud of our placement in Core Capabilities, Advanced Capabilities, Solution Breadth, and Strategy & Innovation.
CCM In the Cloud
As a cloud-first CCM provider, the Smart Communications team paid close attention to mentions of “cloud” in the report. Omdia stated, “While the cloud continues to make inroads as the deployment model of choice for enterprises in the CCM space and some vendors find that virtually all implementations are now cloud-based, the fact that there is a core of enterprises that still want a traditional on-premises implementation means that few vendors have abandoned on-premises deployments completely.“ Smart Communications is proud to be cloud-native, helping leaders implement CCM solutions that look more like the future than the past.
In the Advanced Capabilities listing, the report listed the specific cloud capabilities that were covered such as, “including the different cloud options available; which public clouds are supported; how the services are licensed and priced; the ease, cost, and speed of migrating content to the cloud; and cloud security.” Smart Communications’ long experience in the SaaS CCM market results in deployments that are secure, efficient, and scalable.
Covering CCM In a Time of Digital Transformation
Omdia’s CCM report delves into the current landscape of the CCM market, notably highlighting the strategies adopted by latecomers to cloud adoption. The report appears to assign higher scores to providers offering separate cloud and on-premises solutions, without clearly delineating that they typically fall into one of two categories:
1. Containerized legacy CCM technologies that essentially repackaged old solutions as containerized offerings without delivering the key advantages of cloud-native technology.
2. Providing ‘new from scratch’ cloud offerings that are incompatible with existing systems, necessitating a complete overhaul and recreation of integrations. This approach puts the burden of a full migration onto the customer while failing to provide the benefits of best-of-breed technology from a SaaS-focused provider.
As a cloud-native SaaS offering, Smart Communications does not shift these burdens to clients. While some may perceive providers offering both cloud and on-premises solutions as providing flexibility, the reality often involves carrying over legacy limitations to the cloud or requiring extensive rewriting and reintegration efforts. This falls short of delivering a mutually beneficial solution. You deserve a smoother journey without the hefty price tag and legacy issues that come with being an early adopter of new SaaS CCM solutions.
Omdia Perspective on Smart Communications’ Strengths
To see the full run down of Smart Communications' strengths, check out the report using the link below. We bet you’ll be as pleased as we are with the Omdia Universe for CCM, especially the Strategy & Innovation area. Make sure to check out the Strategy & Innovation category, as a top score in this category shows the closest alignment with your future direction.